Offline enable the Windows 8 built-in administrator account

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Michael Pietroforte

Michael Pietroforte is the founder and editor in chief of 4sysops. He has more than 35 years of experience in IT management and system administration.

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In this post, I describe two procedures to offline enable the built-in administrator account in Windows 8. Which one you prefer is a matter of taste. In the first guide, you need to replace a Windows command, which might not be everybody’s thing. The second method involves offline editing of the Windows Registry, which I only recommend for experienced users or admins.

Offline enable the built-in Windows 8 administrator account

1. Boot from the Windows 8 boot media.
2. After Windows 8 setup started press SHIFT+F10 to access a command prompt.
   
3. Type copy /y d:\windows\system32\cmd.exe d:\windows\system32\sethc.exe.
   
4. Remove the boot media and restart Windows 8.
5. At the login screen, hit the SHIFT key five times until the command prompt appears.
6. Type net user administrator /active:yes. This enables the built-in administrator account in Windows 8.
   
7. Reboot the computer. When the logon screen appears, click the arrow on the left.
8. You should see now the Administrator account icon. You can log in without a password.
   

You have now full access to the Windows 8 computer. Secure the data for the Microsoft account for which you lost the password and create a new account. After you are done, I strongly recommend disabling the administrator account again: net user administrator /active:no.

Enable the built-in administrator account in the Registry

1. Boot from the Windows 8 boot media.
2. After Windows 8 setup started press SHIFT+F10 to access a command prompt.
3. Type regedit and click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
   
4. Click the File menu and then Load Hive.
   
5. Load the SAM file from D:\windows\system32\config.
   
6. Enter a key name (for example, myKey).
   
7. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\myKey\SAM\Domains\Users\000001F4.
   
8. Right-click the F key and select Modify.
   
9. Navigate to position 0038 right before the value 11.
10. Press DEL, type 10, and click OK.
    
11. Click the myKey hive, click the File menu, click Unload Hive, and confirm the unloading of the hive.
    

The result is the same as with method 1. After you reboot, you can log on with the administrator account; no password is required. To disable the administrator account, type net user administrator /active:no at a command prompt with admin rights.